College students’ motives for listening to their instructors

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify the motives college students report for listening to their instructors. One hundred and fifty (N = 150) undergraduate students enrolled at a large Mid-Atlantic university identified 707 reasons that motivated them to listen to their instructors. Using first (i.e. initial, In Vivo) and second (i.e. axial) cycle coding, ninemotives emerged from the data. These motives are learning, achievement, utility, insight, affiliation, self-interest, involvement, monetary, and self-promotion. Collectively, these ninemotives implicitly reinforce not only how listening—as a communication activity—is vital to college students and their classroom experience but also offer an explanation for why listening is the most frequently utilized communication activity in the classroom.

Keywords:

• listening
• student motives for listening
• student communication motives
• student-instructor communication
• instructional communication

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. A tenth motive—instructor, which was conceptualized as the identification of the impressions, behaviors, or skills associated with instructors and the instructional process—emerged from the data. Because students attributed their reasons for listening to an instructor rather than to themselves, this motive was not examined in this study.

2. The number refers to the numerical code assigned to the participant.